Friday, January 29, 2010

Constructivism/Constructionism at Work

The strategies that were discussed in Chapter 11 of the text directly correspond to both the constructivist theory and the constructionist theory. These theories essentially require students to create something to aide in their learning. Chapter 11 discusses the idea of the students creating spreadsheets to watch how formulas grow and expand. This is an excellent example of the students creating something in order to learn how it works. Students who can work hands-on with material like this are bound to learn the material better. Not only do students learn the material this way, they also get a deeper understanding of it because they see it at work and can visually see what happens. No matter what kind of learner you are I always think that it is best to do something in order to learn best.


Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

3 comments:

  1. Amber,

    I agree that most individuals learn better by doing or becoming engaged in the learning process. My principal and I were discussing a research that was conducted on how students learn. According to the results, most students learn best by having discussions about concepts as well as practicing the concept. The more experiences that a child has, the larger their schema is for understanding new concepts in the future.

    Meghan

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree that students learn better when they are engaged. Students loose interest quickly especially in today's society where every thing has immediate feedback. Therefore if students are actively participating in an activity that is at their interest level they are more likely to walk away from the lesson with more understanding and knowledge of the subject.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The students do get a better understanding of the material because of the hands on work, but I also think that the learning is majorly impacted by the students coming up with their conjectures about the material. They might not be completely right, but I think it's helpful because the information will mean more to the students. Whatever they are not understanding can be hinted at, so the student has a second chance.

    ReplyDelete